Pac-12 football: Weekend wrap

This will not become a weekly Hotline feature. But with Stanford off and Cal and San Jose State on the road, I had time to watch, ponder, and write before turning to my AP ballot …

Team of the week: Oregon State.

How ’bout them Beavers.

OSU never trailed against No. 19 UCLA, held Johnathan Franklin to 45 yards — the Beavers’ defensive front is much, much better than it was last year — and blistered the Bruins with a downfield passing game.

The Beavers have now beaten Wisconsin and UCLA. Granted, the Badgers aren’t what we expected, but still …

Win of the week: Colorado. Had some fun at CU’s expense during the week, but the Buffs deserve plenty of credit today.

They rallied from 17 down in the fourth quarter (on the road) to beat Washington State on a fourth-and-goal touchdown run by quarterback Jordan Webb.

The win followed a difficult three weeks in which CU lost to Colorado State, Sacramento State and Fresno State (by 55), all of which prompted school president Bruce Benson to give coach Jon Embree a rare September vote of confidence.

(Had to find a way to give CU some love but also needed to credit Oregon State for its win. The solution was differentiating between team and victory of the week.)

Streak of the week: USC.

The Trojans beat Cal for the ninth consecutive year, holding the Bears to single digits for the fifth time during the span.

We usually think of basketball as a game of matchups, but so is football — and USC’s personnel and style give Cal fits year after year.

Combined scores the past five years: 152-38.

Defensive struggle of the week: Oregon vs. Arizona.

Relative to expectations, 49 total points — all of them scored by Oregon — qualifies as a defensive struggle.

I figured this as 70+ pointer.

Call of the week: Colorado.

Sending Webb up the middle on fourth-and-goal from the four with nine seconds left.

Stat of the week: Oregon State version.

The Beavers held UCLA to 2 of 15 conversions on third down.

State of the week: USC version.

The Trojans outrushed Cal 296-77.

Stat of the week: Arizona State version.

Quarterback Taylor Kelly was 19 of 26 for 326 yards and three touchdowns.

Division of the week: North.

Oregon State’s victory at UCLA was the difference. At this point, three of the top-four teams in the conference reside in the North (Oregon, Stanford and OSU).

Red zone failure of the week: Cal.

The Bears failed to score a touchdown on five trips into the red zone. They kicked three field goals, threw an interception and missed a field goal.

Heisman flop of the week: UCLA TB Johnathan Franklin.

Just when the Bruins were starting to promote Franklin, the nation’s leading rusher was held to 45 yards on 12 carries.

Oregon State is a Heisman campaign killer, as Wisconsin’s Montee Ball might attest. (Good thing for Matt barkley that the trojans miss OSU.)

Bleak outlook of the week: Cal.

The Bears are 1-3 for the first time since 2003, Jeff Tedford’s second year in Berkeley.

Yes, two of the losses were on the road to Ohio State and USC, but one of the losses was at home to Nevada.

The Bears must win five of their last eight to become bowl-eligible. They have no byes and play both Stanford and Oregon (and Oregon State).

A year after their humiliating loss to the Hornets, OSU is now beating the big boys. Maybe this bodes well for the Buffs. Sort of like the baseball tradition of bedding a hogger to bust out of a slump.

btw, the 4th and goal play CU ran to take the lead was a pass play that the QB has the option of turning into a draw play. I heard Jordan Webb interviewed after the game about it. Wazzou’s D was sufficiently spread that he felt comfortable running it in.

Darius

Whoah there Sid…

Mk92

I’d go with Arizona for red zone failure of the week…4 trips to the red zone in the 1st quarter or so, and ZERO points.

Jason

Jon, I know you don’t want to make this a regular Hotline item . . . but for what it’s worth, I loved reading this piece. If you WERE to make this a weekly posting, you’d make one happy reader even happier.

Darius

Incidentally, I can’t seem to shake the way the numbers are shaping up for Cardinal Football this year. Me thinks the computers are simply going to fall in love with this team. SJSU 3-1, Duke 3-1, USC 3-1, UW 2-1 … by Thursday, they’ll have one loss on their schedule courtesy of Stanford (and LSU).

Interestingly, just before an unseasonably early Big Game, Stanford will have faced two ranked teams, one that was ranked (and maybe if Sparta keeps playing football one that later became ranked). And now, after yet another USC dismantling of the Kabbage patch Bears, a 7-0 Stanford team after Big Game “should” be ranked above a 7-0 Oregon team (at least in the computers)! And, yes, I understand that the Domers may have something to say about that…

On a sadly related note, Kal could very easily be 2-5 by the time Big Game rolls around in mid-October (now that’s just too funny!!!).

Chuck

Where is that clown Rotvogel lauding Kal’s front seven?? They got manhandled by $C. Not a single sack on Barkley and had the ball run down down their throats. Oh, but Stanford showed the way to beat SC I thought? Yep – but the problem is that it takes actual talent, not talk. But, but Kal has Brennan Scarlett!!! How could this be??

texashaterforlife

Kudos to Colorado for the road win; especially with the all-or-nothing attitude of the gutsy 4th and 1 call. That attitude is what Jeff Tedford should have been doing last week against OSU. I oddly remember Tedford used to do that early in his Cal career when they were winning. The current attitude is why Cal bear fans are becoming Tedford Haters.
Kudos to the SJSU Spartans for a tough Road win. Never considered myself a bandwagon jumper, but Cal is giving me reason to turn away while the spartans look like an underdog most people would want to watch and root for.

alchemist

I second Jason’s comment about making this a more regular feature and Mk92′s about Arizona’s red zone failure being way worse than Cal’s. I think they might have been 0 for 6 when it was all said and done.

http://www.voteobrien.org/login.asp Cardinal Rule

@Chuck
You took the words right outta my mouth! NOT A SINGLE SACK rotfogel! We can’t wait for your next pronouncement rotfogel.

Ranger John

Love for Colorado (a PAC – 12 WANNA BEE) and NO LOVE FOR

SJS!!!

Bootlegger

Rotfogel and Milo (if they are not the same person) are at a juice bar together talking about basketball season.

StanTheMan

@Bootlegger – rugby season, not basketball

Hard to tell who sucks more – Avis Tedfraud, Zach Maynurd, or Cal’s run defense.

BRENNAN SCARLETT TO THE RESCUE!!!

chris

Next week we can’t watch the Beavs on TV since they are on the Pac 12 Network, and well, Directv, has still not gotten it’s act together. Pretty freaking sad

leon0112

Before the season, SC’s Matt Barkley was supposed to be the country’s most impressive QB. At this point, I am not sure he is the conference’s most impressive QB.

Steve W.

I am a die-hard Cal fan, but I cannot understand how some of the Cal faithful keep talking about the supposed talent on Cal’s front 7 defense. The stats speak for themselves: no sacks against USC, no sacks against Ohio State and maybe one sack against Nevada. I am not seeing any moves to shed blockers and get to the quarterback.

My feeling after the Nevada game was that Cal’s D-line was gassed and didn’t have the extra gear needed to put pressure on their QB. Now I am wondering if the talent is there. USC’s offensive line ain’t that special, as Stanford readily showed.

tmds

@ Steve W. #15,
Stanford punctured a very sturdy and talented trojan OL — most teams would love to have so much touted talent on the same team (USC’s OL, including back-ups are rated nationally by Phil Steele coming out of HS, as #17 & #6 @ LT; #63, #10, &#11 @ LG; #14 & #35 @ C; #12, #63JC, & #5 @ RG; and #9, #30JC, & #95 @ RT — an amazing array of talent for a single unit on any team).
So it’s not that they’re not special, it’s Stanford’s defense and especially their front 7, that are exceptional beyond compare this year… primarily, IMO, because of Shayne Skov’s presence, exceptional beyond anything anyone’s seen on the farm since before the War. — and i say this in direct contradiction to rottingfogelf’s previous comments…
(Which war you ask ? oh yeah, forgot there’s dozens to choose from – i mean WWII.)

lesliemedford

Oh, here rotten-birdie, here rotten-birdie. Wow, that was impressive!!! Hope you are enjoying Scarlett’s development into maybe THE dominating NFL player of his generation…cuz that’s all that REALLY matters, right? Go back to crystal ball and give it a good scrub…I think it’s a bit murky. You should be seeing red of a slightly different hue…probably cardinal.

Note – on the $C OL the lowest rated lineman in the top 2/3 rotation is a #95 rated fr tackle, the next lowest rating is #63JC & #63HS, and everyone else is rated #35 or higher… On the Card’s line there’s a #217 starting ! and only this yr’s fr recruits rate on a par with most of $C’s recruits…
(i’m very excited about Barry Sanders Jr running behind these freshmen after they have a yr or so of experience under their belts).

USC Maddog

Rotenfogel was right!
Stanford did show us the way and the way was run the ball right up the gut of Kal. Appearently the commies like the “red zone” but they don’t like to seal the deal with touchdowns.
This made for an interesting game, a little sloppy but the Trojans will get better with age. Did I say how much I love playing Tedford…love that guy.
Fight On!

USC Maddog

The OSU vs. UCLA game was not so much about the great win for the Beaver Boys as it was showing the true nature of the Baby Blue Boys of Westwood.

Nate

UCLA may not have as easy of a time with CU as they thought. After watching the Washington State game, I think CU finally got their grove back. I’m so glad that I switched from DIRECTV to DISH because now DISH offers the PAC 12 network. I work for DISH and I can tell you that this network is offered on DISH’s AT 120+ and higher, and the multi-sports package!